Its eyes were on long horns like a snail's eyes...it had ears like a bat's ears & its tubby body was shaped like a spider's & covered with thick soft fur...and it had hands & feet like a monkey's'. ' It' was the Psammead the grumpy s&-fairy that could if in the mood grant a wish a day. When the five children befriend him they find that each wish granted often has a sting in its tail. Golden guineas are too difficult to spend wings let them down in a most inconvenient way & when they wish for Red Indians the children forget that they can sometimes be a little warlike.